When the Cheng Detective Agency is hired by the CIA to investigate the murder of a US sailor, Sam is asked to help out as a favour to the widowed owner, Patricia.
When Feng, arrives from China looking for the husband she hasn't seen since the war, no-one but she is even certain that he is still alive. But Sam knows what it's like to lose family and Patricia knows what it's like to lose a husband: both will move heaven and earth to solve the mystery of what happened to Feng's husband - but the case becomes even more immediate and mysterious when Feng is poisoned.
While trying to sort out Kang's gambling debts to Kay Song, Sam is reluctantly drawn into the detective agency's investigation into whether Claire Simpson's husband Frank has been taking kickbacks from clients.
When Claire finds the medicines Maxwell Black's company is providing to children in a small village hospital aren't working, she insists that the company investigate the problem.
Caught transporting explosives, Kang is facing the gallows if Sam cannot track down and get the truth from a leading trade unionist, Lim Chee Kit, whose organisation is suspected of being involved in a recent bombing.
When two young Australian women vanish from a freighter near Singapore, the Australian embassy asks Sam to discover what happened to them. Meanwhile, Patricia copes with devastating revelations about her late husband.
Sam's old friend Robert Collier is arrested for murdering his date, bartender and aspiring reporter Angelica Warnock. Convinced of his innocence, Sam tries to clear his name-but even Robert himself can't remember what happened that night.
Sam is on the brink of discovering the truth behind the murder of Patricia's husband - a murder that involves a secret deal between James Lim, Kay Song and the CIA.
